Chapter 3: Back to the Alpha Cruiser.

It was morning, and all five were awake and ready. Hawke decided to call a meeting before breakfast, as they really neede to come up with something. They sat around the table, and all were silent. But then Hawke finally spoke. "Dako, is there a deep-space beacon near us?" "Not any that I know of, but I can easily check that for you, why?" "I'll tell you in a minute, just take a look to see if there's one near first." "Ok" And Dako went to his chair as a communicator and scanned the areas. "Hey, there's one not so far away." "Good," replied Hawke. "Send a location transmit to it, asking the location of the Alpha Cruiser." "Sure. Transmitting now, it'll take about two minutes. Now, tell us your plan." "Allright, we head back to the Alpha Cruiser, and tell them what happened." Rose interrupted him. "Why haven't we figured that out earlier, I mean, that's SO obvious!" "We were probably too shocked to think clearly yesterday." Answered Dako Rose. "Well, are we going for it?" Asked Hawke. "Yes!" Answered all in unison. "Transmit is complete, I got the new locations of the Alpha right here. Wow, they're pretty far away from here by now, we better hurry or we'll miss them, they're heading to Konara V, and are going into Subspace in about 3 hours!" Dako said, and instantly powered on all the computers on the ship. "Damn. let's hurry!" Stated Hawke, and ran to the pilot seat. Toren, who hadn't said anything the whole morning, except for the little 'yes,' walked to the weapons and defense post, telling Rhani to join him so she could learn. Rhani, eager to learn, ran to the seat and hopped in it. "Please, I've learned a lot already, please let me do it this time, I mean, there isn't any danger right? Just let me sit here ok? PLEASE!" Toren tried to tell her it was ok the whole time but couldn't get between her rapid speech, and after she was done, he simply said "ok" and walked around the ship a bit. "Ok, ready to enter Subspace" said Dako. "Thank you, entering Subspace in 3, 2, 1, go!" replied Hawke, and they entered Subspace.

They only had 2 and a half hours to get to the Alpha, and it seemed impossible. However, they didn't let their face down, and started yet another game of Channa, which Toren was quite good in. They made alliances, Hawke and Dako, Rose and Rhani, and Toren alone as he was the best of them all. Toren didn't mind it a bit, that he was outnumbered, he saw it as a challenge. It was also caused by the fact that he was a Khrin-Tahri, and Khrin-Tahri never fear their enemies, not even when they're outnumbered by 20 to 1! Toren was however given the first move, which always is an advantage, because then you already can destroy some enemy bots, but only if you had the fastest bot in the game that is. Rhani was the victim of Toren's zipper-bot and lost her turret-bot immediately. After five moves the game always changes into realtime, to keep more excitement in it, which seemed impossible because the game was already incredibly exciting. Hawke and Dako successfully managed to destroy Toren's castle, and were about to take his flag when Rhani and Rose broke down Dako's castle, so they had to return to defend themselves. Toren still had difficulty defending his own flag, but managed to incinerate Rose's castle and take HER flag, which caused him to get a lot of Virtual Credits which he immediately used to buy new armors and bots. When Rose lost her flag, she decided to be Rhani's 'supervisor' and told Rhani whenever her castle was threatened. The battle continued like this for almost the full 2 and a half hours, when Toren finally managed to destroy Rhani's castle, and with the credits he earned with that he bought yet another group of bots and after that it was easy to finish Hawke and Dako's castles off! Toren was the big winner, and the rest congratulated him. They were all exhausted again, but then the alarm went off and they had new energy. They were about to exit Subspace and see the Alpha cruiser, so everyone took their positions and got ready. Rhani was allowed to sit in the Weapons and Defense seat, but this time Toren stood behind her for safety. "Exiting Subspace in 3, 2, 1, now!" shouted Hawke. But when they exited...

"AAAH!!!" Screamed everyone, as they exited Subspace and seemd to collide with a large spaceship which looked like it was directly in front of them, REAL close. "Impact iminent, impact iminent" was what Hawke expected to hear from the computer, but when they all looked up after throwing their heads down for the collision, they saw that the ship which they thought to be very close was in fact pretty far, it was in the other hand incredibly large, it was gigantic! It was so large that they thought it was a normal ship but really close, and realising they weren't going to crash they all sighed in relief. But then it began to come to their senses that that ship was unbelievably large, and it frightened them. "Oh my god, no, not the..." said Rhani, and stared to the ship. "Not what?!" Asked all at the same time. "..It's the MANTIS!!" Rhani explained, and she shivered after saying it. "The Mantis? Isn't that the secret ship of the Chari?" Asked Hawke, who wondered if he heard it right. "Yes, and that means that it is finished and fully functioning!" Answered Rhani, but the fact that it was finished didn't make her feel proud a bit, it made her feel horrible. It was the biggest event in the History, and it was something every Chari could be proud of, but not Rhani, as she instantly knew that the Delta-2 had to be destroyed by the Mantis. "Where's the Alpha?" asked Dako, but he didn't need an answer, as he saw the Alpha Cruiser himself. "Look, the Alpha is right there!" He shouted, and all looked in the way he pointed. It was not a reassuring sight: the Alpha Cruiser was flying at an incredible speed, and it looked like she was trying to escape the Mantis behind her. The Alpha cruiser was a lot smaller than the Mantis, which also was terrifying to notice. "Man, I thought the ALPHA was big!" said Hawke, and he sunk in his chair, and was about to lose his courage. "HOLS traveller, identify yourself or be destroyed" was suddenly heard through the speakers. Dako was bout to tell the unknown person their names and origins, but Rhani jumped out her seat and silenced Dako. "Don't let them know you're not Chari, or else they'll kill you instantly! Not a single non-chari is allowed to see the Mantis and live! Let me handle this, and you all BE QUIET!" She took the microphone and waited for the rest to be totally silent. Then she answered the person on the Mantis. "This is Rhani, Chari female, spy, but usually soldier on planets. I have captured this HOLS on the Delta-2, where I was assigned by a Chari of which I don't know the name. I am having trouble flying it, as I had to kill the crew, or else they would've killed me. Plese send me help, I can't fly this thing very well!" "Hold on, we are sending you a pilot and a navigator, plese keep your current course, the pod will reach you in three minutes. The compliments of the Captain for stealing a HOLS, it can be of great use to us. Thank you." Rhani thanked the person and shut the com-link with the Mantis. She then turned to the others. "Kill the crew?" Said Hawke. "I feel pretty alive you know!" Added Dako. "Wait, don't get mad, if I would've said that I had taken you prisoners, you would've been transported to the Mantis and were probably killed within days. Now, you just got to hide someplace good and don't get out until we're safe again!" Toren praised her for her quick thinking, as did the others. She then told them to let it rest, as she didn't want to be praised by non-Chari people, which was cuased by her nature of being a Chari trying to get the Genome Honour and even the join the Genome soldiers. Being praised by non-Chari felt just wrong, and she didn't want to do anything wrong, as she definitely wanted to join the Genome soldiers.

For the next three minutes the group tried to find a suitable hiding place, and they found it in the small showers, which were actually too small to hide four people, but they somehow managed to do it anyway. Rhani went back to the control room to prepare the boarding of the pilot and the navigator from the Mantis, and in about a minute the two were onboard. The pilot asked Rhani how she managed to enter and exit Subspace, but Rhani merely told him she had pressed some buttons which seemd the right ones to her. The pilot was impressed by this, and told Rhani she was a natural talent. Rhani thanked him for his compliment, but it only made her feel even worse than she felt already. She couldn't fly a ship if her life depended on it, and now she was being praised for entering and exiting Subspace, which was a complete riddle to her when she saw Hawke do it. The pilot flew the ship into a docking bay on the Mantis, and Rhani helped as the communicator. The navigator didn't have very much to do anymore, so he decided to look around the HOLS a bit, as he had never seen such an agile ship made by Terrans. While the navigator wandered around the ship, the pilot was busy landing it in a docking bay. Rhani helped him with the communications but when they entered the bay she left her seat and started looking for the navigator to prevent him from discovering her friends. The man was about to take a look in the showers, when Rhani saw him and called him. He turned towards her, and noticing the tension in her voice he asked: "What is it?" "We're landing, plesae come to the control room." "What for, I am no longer needed for the landing, I was taking a look around this ship. Are these showers really this small or are they built in a wall?" "No, they are really this small." Said Rhani worryingly. What would she do if he opened the shower doors or if someone of her friends made a noise? She tried to figure out a way to get him to join her in the control room, but she couldn't think of a thing. "Mind if I take a look in the showers?" Asked the man. "No!" Shouted Rhani. Realising what she just did, she desperately sought a way to prevent him from opening the doors, but the only thing she could come up with was to beat him up, which would only make matters worse. "Good, thanks" said the man, and opened the door a little. "Wait!!" Screamed Rhani. "What is it?" asked the man, holding the door half-opened. "There might be bugs in this one, why don't you take a look in the other one?" "Oh, I'm not afraid of bugs, don't worry." Damn, what to do? Rhani decided to make sure that the pilot would not be alerted when the navigator would see the enemies. She ran back to the control room and tried to make as much noise without suspicion. The man looked after her as she ran back, and opened the shower doors completely. The next moment a firm hand grabbed him at his collar and dragged him in the shower. "Be quiet!" hissed Toren to the man. "Who..who are you?" asked the poor navigator to the two people in the shower. "Our names are not important, the only thing you should worry about is getting yourself killed if you don't do what we tell you!" answered Dako him. "Now, stay quiet and you won't get hurt, understood?" he added. The man nodded without saying anything, and Toren let his grip on the man's collor loosen up a bit. He still holded him firmly, but now the man was able to breathe normally.

"Why are you making so much noise?" asked the pilot. "Oh I'm sorry, I uh, I am used to noise and when it gets too silent I make noise so I won't feel threatened. I know it sounds silly, but..." "Don't worry, it doesn't sound so silly at all, but it doesn't make much sense however." "Well, I'll just stop it ok?" "Good." Phew, she barely got out of that one! Now, how could she get his minds of the navigator as long as possible? They were about to land, so he would probably ask for him so they could go back again. "Where's Chrann?" "Who?" "Chrann, the navigator." "Oh, uh, I haven't seen him, why?" "Well, we're almost done and all, I'd like to go back to my usual work again, I still have lots to do, we can't get a good shot at that Alpha Cruiser! My work is not that important, otherwise they wouldn't have sent me to you in the first place, but I wanna be there when they blast the shit out of that stupid little ship!" "I see your point. You just wait here, I'll search for him, he can't be very far, right!" and she hastily left the control room. Rhani ran to the shower by which she saw the man for the last time, and opened the door. Another hand almost grabbed her throat, but seeing it was Rhani Toren pulled back his arm. "Where's the pilot?!" asked Dako quickly. "Don't worry, he's waiting for him in the control room" replied Rhani, pointing at the navigator who's name apparently was Chrann. Chrann didn't say a word, as he was afraid they would kill him. Toren paused a couple of seconds, then said: "We gotta kill him and the pilot, otherwise they'll betray us!" "No!" shouted the man suddenly, and after that, he realised that he had made too much noise. Toren tightened his grip on the man's throat, and told him that if he would make just one more sound, he'd die. Rhani stood halfway in the shower when she heard the doors of the control room above open up. "Damn, he heard the scream, now what?" The shower doors on the other side of the corridor opened up, and Hawke and Rose walked out. "What was that?" asked Hawke. "This idiot shouted," answered Rhani, "and the pilot heard it. We gotta do something fast!" Hawke ran up to them and looked at the man in the shower, who was having difficulty breathing again, due to the tight grip of Toren. "Rhani, does the pilot think you're an enemy?" asked Rose to Rhani. "No, I don't think so..." Rhani answered, not understanding where Rose was going. "Good, you must lure him into a trap. Toren, you have a gun right?" "Yes, but I left it in the control room when we ran out of there." "Damn, Rhani you got to get it fast!" "I don't know if I can run past the pilot without him suspecting anything. He has a gun too I believe..." "Try it, it's our only hope I think. You're quite good in fighting too right? If he stops you, just kick him in his..things..and run to the control room while he can't follow you. Ok?" Rose had thought quick enough to come up with an option, and Hawke praised her, but he just like to praise her anyway. It made her feel good, and that's exactly what his intentions were. Rhani ran up again, and she saw the pilot walking towards her. "What was that?" he asked. "I don't know, I was just...going to you to tell you!" she hurriedly replied. "You were a spy and a planet soldier right? Do you have a gun?" "Yes, and no. I have one in the control room, wait here 'til I get back ok?" "No, I'll go down, just hurry up ok?" "Ok" answered Rhani, but she felt like everything went wrong. Actually, her feelings were quite right, as everything WAS going wrong. She ran to the control room and searched for Toren's gun, but she couldn't find it. Meanwhile, the pilot walked down the stairs carefully, expecting an attack any second. He held his gun, which was a level 3 plasma-rifle, straight forward, and his hands clamped around it. Level one plasma rifles were accessible by any person in the Sectors; it was not very strong, and you couldn't kill anyone with it even if you'd shoot a million times with it. It only hurt a bit, and was mainly used by security people to 'stun' hostiles so they didn't had to kill them. Level two rifles were a bit stronger, but it was still hard to kill anyone with a level two rifle. Level three however was the perfect tool for killing without much trouble. It only required accurate shooting, but if you could shoot precisely with it, you could kill a man with merely three direct hits! Level four was even more powerful, and aiming didn't had to be as precise as with level three rifles. Level four made quite large holes and they hurt a lot. And with level five rifles aiming was totally unnecessary, as with a direct hit in the stomach, the only thing left to tell about a victim was a lot of blood on the walls! Well, the pilot had a level 3 rifle, and slowly he walked through the corridor. He stood in front of a shower, and got ready to fire. He pulled the door open as hard as he could, and pointed his rifle at...an empty shower. Phew, nothing here, he thought to himself. He advanced to the second shower, and stood again right in front of it. He pulled the door open once again, and was shocked this time, as he saw two unknown men and Chrann, his partner. Chrann was being held to his throat by one of the enemies. "Don't shoot or your friend dies!" shouted Toren. "If I shoot you, you won't be able to kill him anymore..." answered the pilot. "But then I will kill you!" added Dako. The four men stood there, staring at eachother without doing anything. "Now what?!" said the pilot afraid. His hands were clamping the rifle like mad, and they were beginning to hurt too. "Give me the gun, and your friend lives" said Dako, but he knew he was lying, as there was not a possible way for them to escape this place without killing them. "No way, you'll kill me if I do!" The man was getting confused and shivered. Suddenly, a noise was heard from a end of the corridor, the side from which the pilot DIDN'T come. The pilot looked to his left, and saw Hawke standing there with something that looked like a gun. He turned his arms to Hawke's direction and shot. Hawke shouted and fell back in the darkness. Toren saw that and broke Chrann's neck by turning his head so hard his body swung along. The pilot noticed it and quickly turned to Toren. He reloaded the rifle which apparently neede to be reloaded, and aimed it at Toren's head. "Now YOU die!" said the man when the rifle was reloaded again. Then suddenly, a loud sound was heard, and blood splattered through the whole shower. The blood wasn't Toren's, but it was from the pilot, who's head was completely gone. The headless body of the former pilot sunk to the ground, and the rifle in it's hands clashed to the floor with a terrifying sound. After Toren and Dako saw that the pilot had been killed, Rhani jumped in front of them. Toren and Dako were almost frightened to death with Rhani's sudden appearance, but they soon saw it was safe again. "I got him there didn't I?!" said Rhani proud. "Nice shot huh?" she added, as both Toren and Dako didn't say anything. "Hawke!" shouted Dako suddenly, and he ran out the shower. Hawke was lying on the floor, which was colored with blood. "I'm ok, it's not so bad" said Hawke to Dako when he saw him coming towards him. "Where are you hit?" asked Dako, but he already saw it was in Hawke's left arm. "Does it hurt bad?" asked Rose, almost crying. "No, just put some bandages around it and I'm better again. Thanks." They put some bandages around his arm, and the helped him get to the control room. In the control room, a person on the speakers was shouting. "Hello, is anybody still there? Chrann, are you there? Negah, are you there? Is anyone there?!" Rhani took the microphone and told everyone to be quiet again. "This is Rhani, everything's ok, we were just walking around the ship, Chrann never saw a HOLS in his life, so I gave him a little tour. We will exit the ship in a couple of minutes. Thank you." She shut the connection-link with the Mantis' command, and spoke to the others. "Now what should we do?" "Were you telling the truth that you are a spy too?" asked Toren. "Well, only a little bit, I've been living a long time in a 'council-house' on Gella Gamma," Rhani started, "and there was this Spy~ren guy who told me a lot about spying and such, and I learned a bit from him. That's all." "Well, we need to find a way to get away from this blasted ship without being noticed, so we must disable their radars somehow!" Toren stated this as if it was a simple task which needed to be fulfilled, but in fact it was almost impossible: a ship the size of a small planet, about 20 million people working on it, almost 2 million security officers; not a single living being would dare to try and infiltrate this! But for Rhani, it didn't matter how much enemies there were; more enemies only meant more fun to her. "Sure, I'll do that!" she said. "You can't do it alone!" Hawke stated. "Why not?" asked Rhani, a bit surprised with Hawke's words. "There are more than 2 million guards out there! How are you gonna get past them?!?" he replied. "Simple, I just walk past them! Don't forget, I am not an enemy on this ship, well, at least they think I'm not an enemy! I won't get into trouble, I'll just walk to the radar transmit center, find out how I can disable all their radars and get back!" Everyone looked at her in disbelief, but as Rhani was able to walk around the ship without trouble, they didn't say anything. "Good, but now that's settled, you guys must find a place to hide, because YOU can't walk around without being shot. And you can't stay in the ship, as they'll investigate it thoroughly." "Well where can we hide?" asked Rose, who was still shivering from the accident a few minutes ago. "Well, wherever it is, you gotta do it quick! They're coming already!" Rhani ordered them to hide someplace safe, and immediately left them there. "Now why is she leaving us already?" asked Hawke, but not one could come up with an answer, as theguards of the Mantis were approaching the ship to investigate it. "Quick, get back to the showers and hide the bodies!" Toren ordered. They did as he said and hid the bodies in an airvent, which was incredibly hot, but it was the only place available. They closed the doors of the showers and tried to clean up the blood on the walls, but failed. They let it be like that and ran for the lowest part in the ship, the cable tunnels. They hid under the walkways in the cable tunnels and kept totally silent as the guards entered the ship. Rhani, who only left the control room earlier, had packed two bags and told the guards about the blood on the walls by the showers. She explained it was of the Terrans who owned this ship, and that she had killed them there. She said she threw out the bodies in space using the space-hatch, and then she said goodbye to the guards and walked away of the ship. The guards didn't know that there were also a pilot and a navigator onboard, which was quite a relief to everybody. The group in the cable tunnels heard all this, and Toren whispered to the others. Don't make a sound when they walk over us, not until they are completely out of the ship, ok?" Everyone whispered a soft ok back to him, and they kept silent while the guards explored the ship. They held their breaths when suddenly a guard stopped walking directly above them. It was like heaven when he finally continued his search throughout the ship. When the guards were all gone, Toren exited his hiding place and made sure that is was safe for the rest to come out too. When they all abandoned their hiding place, they went back to the control room. "I sure hope Rhani pulls it off!" said Toren, wondering about Rhani's courage. They all agreed to that, and waited for Rhani to show up again, telling them to hurry and get out of here, but hours past, and Rhani wasn't seen the whole time...

Ah, the first chapter since I got my new HQ. Well, what do you think? Good, bad, terrible, fantastic? Tell me what you think about it, my E-mail address is below. I'd love to hear your comments, so I can improve it!

Faruk.

You can E-mail me your comments at safe.fire@worldonline.nl!